Winning by Design
Proud to be greenest

Recognizing a Commitment to Corporate Responsibility

We’re proud to be the recent recipient of a prestigious Life Science Industry Award (LSIA) naming us Greenest Life Science Company of 2014.

This honor is especially valued because it reflects the opinions of our peers and customers in the global life science industry: We were selected for the award through a survey of more than 5,000 scientists from 76 countries who are actively engaged in basic and clinical life science research as well as pharmaceutical R&D.

“Our research has repeatedly shown that scientists applaud companies that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability,” says Greg Thompson, Director of Business Development at the market research firm BioInformatics, LLC, which hosts the LSIA awards. “Merck's award is a direct result of its Design for Sustainability program, which seeks to improve customers’ ease of use while reducing products’ environmental footprint.”

The 2014 Life Science Industry Awards® were presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on November 18, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Approximately 100 executives and senior staff from 41 life science companies, as well as representatives of nearly every industry supplier, attended the awards gala.

• To learn more, visit our Corporate Responsibility page.

Innovating Through Design

Our Design for Sustainability (DfS) program is embedded in our product development process (PDP) and ensures product sustainability across several critical impact areas: materials, emissions and energy, waste, water, packaging, and usability and innovation.

We’re establishing environmental impact profiles for many of the materials we use in our products to help our product teams select materials that not only optimize product performance for our customers, but also improve environmental performance and safety.

“We include sustainability at the very beginning of our product development process, so that it becomes an integral part of our design and allows us to develop solutions that meet customer needs,” says David Beattie, Head of R&D for our Biopharm Process Solutions. “This approach ensures that sustainability is a driver for innovation rather than a constraint to the process.”

Partnering with Customers

“We are truly honored by this award, as it helps demonstrate that we can continue to meet our customers’ critical research and development needs, while also meeting their important sustainability goals,” says Johanna Jobin, Head of our Corporate Responsibility & Community Affairs function. “Our Design for Sustainability program is just one of the many ways we’re partnering with customers to find innovative solutions to support their sustainability efforts.

“We’re committed to continuous improvement in all of our Corporate Responsibility programs so that we may provide outstanding products and services while also demonstrating excellent environmental, social, financial, and corporate governance performance. We share this award with our many energized employees who contribute to realizing this commitment every day.”